Postmortem

      As I made Sugar Craze, most of my design process revolved around balancing horror and comedy. I wanted my game to be silly but still be taken seriously as a horror game. At first, it was difficult. I wasn't confident in finding the right timing for horror moments, and I focused more on the horror aspect than I wanted. With how the introduction stands, it's all set up for the horror element of my game, with puns and references serving as jokes. I don't mind how it is right now, but I want to rework everything to fit my vision...which means there will be way more writing on my end. I realized as I developed Sugar Craze that I often get stuck in the details. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, making most of my development time spent fighting those tendencies. When I revamp this game, I'm making a story map on a poster so it's easier for me to visualize my story beats or move them around. I tried using apps, but I eventually abandoned them since I would get distracted. Having a more physical poster with sticky notes or something would probably be more engaging for me and more fun to mess around with. Making this a step in my design process for my branching story ideas will make creating them much more manageable.

      Looking back, I think my design process was a bit of a mess. I followed these rules for the most part:

1. If it's funny, then put it in.
2. If it adds anything to/builds upon the themes of my story, write it in.
3. If it adds to the world-building, add it.
4. If it adds a challenge to the initial game loop, add it.

One of the main mechanics I wanted to add came from rule four. With where my game stands, I haven't implemented it yet (I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't have a version of the game with it). However, it's an expansion of the original choice mechanic with a bit of randomness thrown in, and it's the main reason why there's a noise level in the first place. Basically, throughout the game, there would be actions that would add to your noise level. Then, a scene would spawn once you reached a certain level, and players would need to choose between hiding, running, or fighting. Each choice would have different chances of success, and the results would affect your health. I do have a test version of the game with this mechanic implemented. However, when I tried to put it in the main game, I ran into a huge problem...connecting all of my passages so that everything ran smoothly. When it came time to post Sugar Craze, I didn't feel confident with the current version, so I found a place to cut off the game. If I could do anything differently, I wish I paid more attention to my fourth rule than the first three. I got too excited about the story bits of my game instead of the mechanics, and it bit me on the butt later. I didn't expect my passages to grow so exponentially or the number of things I would need to consider for my variables to work correctly. However, I learned a lot about my design practice over these last couple of weeks. For example, I lean a lot towards things that bring me joy or make the process of making my game fun. The first three rules I listed show that. I need to change that since it wasn't productive and added more to my scope, and I essentially got lost in the sauce.

      Now that I'm done with this game (for now), I didn't expect to get so attached to Sugar Craze. I'm stepping back to collect myself and work on other projects, but I want to return to it eventually. I had so much fun coming up with the story, world-building, and surprisingly...coding. This was my first time using Twine, and I'm absolutely using it for other projects. I'm proud of how the sidebar turned out, especially with all the time I put into it. Since I was using Harlowe, there wasn't a built-in sidebar (like in Sugarcube), so I had to make one from scratch. I would like to shout out Alyshkalia on itch.io for having a Harlowe menu template! It was a lifesaver.